October 22, 2009

Unofficial word from the presidential palace is that Mel Zelaya's team has received Micheletti's proposal and asked to delay the meeting of the dialogue teams until 5 p.m. today. Possibly there will be some concrete news this evening.

Yesterday was a busy Honduran news day. It's a day late for various reasons, but most will probably still be news to those who don't read the Honduran newspapers. I'll hit some of the highlights:

Micheletti's team to Zelaya's team

Through a communicado, the Micheletti team asked the Zelaya team to maintain their commitment to look for a solution to the political crisis. "The negotiating team of President Roberto Micheletti continues waiting patiently for the counter proposal of the representatives of ex-president Manuel Zelaya in the Guaymuras Dialogue," the document mentions.

"Nevertheless, we haven't received any communication in nearly 48 hours. We hope that like us, our colleagues in these talks will continue committed to the process." They made a call to "return to the negotiation table, so that together we can continue to work out the steps face to face and not through secret negotiations behind the scenes."

Loud music and animal noises

While loud music all hours of the night and animal noises are generally thought of as a way of life for most of us in Honduras, José Insulza "denounces and strongly condemns" Mel Zelaya being subject to them. Here is his overblown press release. After all, we are talking about noise, not toxic gases, bombs, or bullets! He gave no condemnation of terrorist acts by the resistance (reported below).

In his address to the OAS meeting, Insulza said that neither party has mentioned abandoning the negotiations − which is flat out false, as Victor Meza, Patty Rodas, and Mel Zelaya have threatened almost daily that the talks are dead, and in fact, have abandoned the negotiating table for more than 48 hours and have asked the OAS to issue a ruling, not to mention Zelaya's incessant issuing of deadlines which show a lack of good faith.

Tired of being pushed around

In turn, Honduran President Roberto Micheletti asked Insulza to exercise better judgment and prudence. Micheletti lamented the inopportune comments by Insulza and reminded him to keep his promise not to intervene in this internal matter. [google translation]

Carlos López, Minister of Foreign Relations, revealed that a letter was sent to the Secretary General of the UN asking that the UN cease discriminatory measures against the Republic of Honduras. He also informed him that the government considers the demand of the UN for the restoration of Zelaya to power is "contrary to domestic law and international law". [google translation of news article]

The official communication is quite shocking in the charges that it makes, including, among others, that it is the member states of the UN who are violating the Vienna convention, not Honduras. The official statement is available in Spanish and English at the Secretary of Foreign Relations site.

Please read it and consider sending it to your government representatives to ask them for comment. These charges cannot continue to go unaddressed!

The government of Honduras announced that it will protest to Venezuela about the frequent airspace violation by Venezuelan registered planes supposedly loaded with drugs or possibly arms or even armed guerrillas. The UN and OAS will also be notified about "the acts that constitute aggression and disrespect for our country". (More on this shortly.)

US not interested in the war on drugs

The government will also present a complaint of the lack of cooperation from the United States of America with the local anti-drug authorities. According to the Minister of the Presidency, the US is refusing to share radar data with Honduran authorities at the joint US-Honduran air base or to notify officials when Honduran airspace has been violated. [google translation]

Sixteen drug (or arms) laden airplanes have flown into Honduran airspace without permission the past few weeks and crashed or been abandoned. It is not known how many more have landed and taken off again without incident at clandestine airstrips. Without the cooperation of the US base, more drugs will flow to the US, or even worse, armed guerrillas could be invading Honduran territory.

Grenades at the mall

Someone found two grenades in a restroom at the big mall in Tegucipalpa about 3 pm yesterday. The mall was evacuated. The bomb squad was unable to deactivate them, so they had to conduct a controlled explosion. I believe this is called terrorism in other countries. [google translation]

Earlier this week, in another act of terrorism, after a large electrical tower was downed, investigators found that bolts had been methodically removed from the tower base. The downing of the tower is estimated to have caused L. 8 million in damage, business loss, and resulted in loss of electrical power for a large area.

The Resistance has claimed responsibility for both incidents and threatens that attacks will continue until Zelaya is restored to office. Hat tip to Eduardo.

More US visa cancellations

In interesting timing, since the US State Department claims on almost a daily basis to be supporting the dialogues and a Honduran solution, the US reportedly cancelled another 26 visas. Two of them include the Minister of Industry and Commerce and the Minister of Information and Media. The latter was surprised as his last US visa expired 6 or 7 years ago, so he has no visa to cancel.

La ENEE cancels public bid

The state-owned energy company, La ENEE, cancelled a public bid for 250 megawatts of renewable energy for reasons of national security and to guaranty electric supply to the population. No further explanation was reported.

Welcome to my Blogicito — spanglish for 'little blog'. I am a US expatriate who has been living here in La Ceiba, Honduras, with my Catracho husband since 2001 and blogging about Honduras and my expatriate life since 2006.

The Blogicito includes a wide variety of topics from everyday life to cultural differences to Honduran politics and corruption. One way to find what you are looking for is to browse the 'Topics' list or the monthly lists of articles under 'La Gringa's archives' below. Looking for something more specific? Use the search box at the upper left (for complete articles) or the Google blog search below (for a list of summaries — usually more manageable).